WAR infographic

On 25 August

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• Ludendorff sent the two corps

• They met and brought into action Samsonov’s VI Corps moving northwards at Bischofsburg.

• Surprised and disorganized, both divisions retreated separately for the Russian border.

• I Corps was ordered to attack the Russian left wing.

 

On 26 August:

• Zhilinksi directed Rennenkampf’s First Army to the west to Konigsberg

• Germans intercepted uncoded wireless messages from both Samsonov and Rennenkampf

• François advanced part of his 1st Division toward the Russian outposts at 08:00, where—despite telephone prodding from the Eighth Army—they only skirmished at a distance until noon.

• Finally they drove the Russian outposts back,

• at 15:45 François halted in order to organize a strong attack on the following day by men with full stomachs and ammunition pouches.

• Scholtz followed his orders, which were to make sure that Russians were not slipping past his flanks, which would make it difficult to spring the trap.

• On his right he attacked to push back the Russian 2nd Division and almost destroyed it.

• On his left the German 3rd Reserve Division repelled an attack by the Russian VI Corps.

• It was a different story in the thinly held center, where the Russian XIII Corps advanced toward the road center of Allenstein almost unopposed.

• In fact, XVII Corps had defeated the Russian VI Corps, which fled back along the roads.

• The rest of the German forces coming onto their left wing were swinging into place by forced marches.

• Samsonov’s II Army was now facing Germans along a 100 km line.

• Ludendorff ordered an attack on Samsonov's left wing near Usdau.

• German artillery forced a Russian retreat, whereupon they were pursued in the rear of the Russian centre.

 

on 27 August:

 

• François attacked the Russian left decisively, hitting I Russian Corps.

• His artillery barrage was overwhelming, and soon he had taken the key town of Usdau.

• In the center, the Russians continued to strongly attack the German XX Corps and to move northwest from Allenstein.

• The German XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps pushed the Russian right wing further back.

• Germans rapidly took Sold on the Russian border

• Communication with Samsonov’s center are cut

• German forces confined Samsonov’s left to the frontier.

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On 28 August

 

• On the morning the German commanders were motoring along the front when they were shown a report from an aerial observer that Rennenkampf was moving towards their rear.

• Samsonov’s forces forces were dispersed

• Samsonov’s I Corps on the left and VI Corps on the right were both retreating.

•  VI corps had been defeated.

• Samsonov’s center had received so little food and ammunition that they were unable to keep attacking.

• Samsonov asked that Rennenkampf be ordered to help. It was too late.

• The Russians who had been attacking were surrounded.

• Samsonov ordered a general withdrawal on the evening.

 

On 29 August

 

• the Russian Second Army’s troops entered into a German defensive line.

• Two Russian army corps escaped before the German pursuit continued.

• Russians who tried break through by dashing across open fields heavy with crops were mown down at Frogenau, east of Tannenberg, and throughout the day were relentlessly pounded by artillery.

• Many surrendered—long columns of prisoners jammed the roads away from the battleground.

• By nightfall on 29 August the Russian centre, amounting to three army corps, was surrounded by Germans and stuck in a forest with no means of escape.

 

On 30 August

 

• the Russians tried unsuccessfully to break open the snare.

• Samsonov disappeared in the woods that night and committed suicide.

 

On 31 August

 

• three Russian army corps (XIII, XV and XXIII) had been destroyed.

• The two corps (I and VI) were retreating to Poland.

 

 

Battle epilogue:

 

• Samsonov’s forces (around 150,000 initialy): 92,000 captured, between 30,000 - 78,000 killed or wounded and only 10,000 escaping. The Russians had lost 350 big guns. Russia lost 13 generals and 350-500 guns

• The Germans: suffered fewer than 20,000 casualties and, in addition to prisoners captured over 500 guns.

• Samsonov shot himself in the surrounding forests.